diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/drop-DEFAULT_PARAMS-bfcc2e7b74ef880b.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/drop-DEFAULT_PARAMS-bfcc2e7b74ef880b.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9a49a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/drop-DEFAULT_PARAMS-bfcc2e7b74ef880b.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+upgrade:
+  - |
+    Replace any call in your code to credentials_factory.DEFAULT_PARAMS with
+    a call to config.service_client_config().
+fixes:
+  - |
+    The credentials_factory module used to load configuration at import time
+    which caused configuration being loaded at test discovery time.
+    This was fixed by removing the DEFAULT_PARAMS variable. This variable
+    was redundant (and outdated), the same dictionary (but up to date) can
+    be obtained via invoking config.service_client_config() with no service
+    parameter.
diff --git a/tempest/common/credentials_factory.py b/tempest/common/credentials_factory.py
index a340531..da34975 100644
--- a/tempest/common/credentials_factory.py
+++ b/tempest/common/credentials_factory.py
@@ -219,13 +219,6 @@
     'alt_user': ('identity', 'alt')
 }
 
-DEFAULT_PARAMS = {
-    'disable_ssl_certificate_validation':
-        CONF.identity.disable_ssl_certificate_validation,
-    'ca_certs': CONF.identity.ca_certificates_file,
-    'trace_requests': CONF.debug.trace_requests
-}
-
 
 def get_configured_admin_credentials(fill_in=True, identity_version=None):
     """Get admin credentials from the config file
@@ -252,7 +245,7 @@
     if identity_version == 'v3':
         conf_attributes.append('domain_name')
     # Read the parts of credentials from config
-    params = DEFAULT_PARAMS.copy()
+    params = config.service_client_config()
     for attr in conf_attributes:
         params[attr] = getattr(CONF.auth, 'admin_' + attr)
     # Build and validate credentials. We are reading configured credentials,
@@ -282,7 +275,7 @@
     :param kwargs: Attributes to be used to build the Credentials object.
     :returns: An object of a sub-type of `auth.Credentials`
     """
-    params = dict(DEFAULT_PARAMS, **kwargs)
+    params = dict(config.service_client_config(), **kwargs)
     identity_version = identity_version or CONF.identity.auth_version
     # In case of "v3" add the domain from config if not specified
     # To honour the "default_credentials_domain_name", if not domain
diff --git a/tempest/tests/cmd/test_account_generator.py b/tempest/tests/cmd/test_account_generator.py
index f907bd0..8bf4c5b 100644
--- a/tempest/tests/cmd/test_account_generator.py
+++ b/tempest/tests/cmd/test_account_generator.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
         self.patchobject(config, 'TempestConfigPrivate',
                          fake_config.FakePrivate)
         self.opts = FakeOpts(version=identity_version)
+        self.patch('oslo_log.log.setup', autospec=True)
 
     def mock_resource_creation(self):
         fake_resource = dict(id='id', name='name')
diff --git a/tempest/tests/common/test_credentials_factory.py b/tempest/tests/common/test_credentials_factory.py
index 020818e..7cf87f8 100644
--- a/tempest/tests/common/test_credentials_factory.py
+++ b/tempest/tests/common/test_credentials_factory.py
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@
         # Build the expected params
         expected_params = dict(
             [(field, value) for _, field, value in all_params])
-        expected_params.update(cf.DEFAULT_PARAMS)
+        expected_params.update(config.service_client_config())
         admin_creds = cf.get_configured_admin_credentials()
         mock_get_credentials.assert_called_once_with(
             fill_in=True, identity_version='v3', **expected_params)
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@
         # Build the expected params
         expected_params = dict(
             [(field, value) for _, field, value in all_params])
-        expected_params.update(cf.DEFAULT_PARAMS)
+        expected_params.update(config.service_client_config())
         admin_creds = cf.get_configured_admin_credentials(
             fill_in=False, identity_version='v3')
         mock_get_credentials.assert_called_once_with(
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@
         cfg.CONF.set_default('uri', expected_uri, 'identity')
         params = {'foo': 'bar'}
         expected_params = params.copy()
-        expected_params.update(cf.DEFAULT_PARAMS)
+        expected_params.update(config.service_client_config())
         result = cf.get_credentials(identity_version='v2', **params)
         self.assertEqual(expected_result, result)
         mock_auth_get_credentials.assert_called_once_with(
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@
         params = {'foo': 'bar'}
         expected_params = params.copy()
         expected_params['domain_name'] = expected_domain
-        expected_params.update(cf.DEFAULT_PARAMS)
+        expected_params.update(config.service_client_config())
         result = cf.get_credentials(fill_in=False, identity_version='v3',
                                     **params)
         self.assertEqual(expected_result, result)
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@
                              expected_domain, 'auth')
         params = {'foo': 'bar', 'user_domain_name': expected_domain}
         expected_params = params.copy()
-        expected_params.update(cf.DEFAULT_PARAMS)
+        expected_params.update(config.service_client_config())
         result = cf.get_credentials(fill_in=False, identity_version='v3',
                                     **params)
         self.assertEqual(expected_result, result)
diff --git a/tempest/tests/test_base_test.py b/tempest/tests/test_base_test.py
index 3ece11d..011bc9b 100644
--- a/tempest/tests/test_base_test.py
+++ b/tempest/tests/test_base_test.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 from tempest import clients
 from tempest.common import credentials_factory as credentials
+from tempest import config
 from tempest.lib.common import fixed_network
 from tempest import test
 from tempest.tests import base
@@ -27,6 +28,8 @@
     def setUp(self):
         super(TestBaseTestCase, self).setUp()
         self.useFixture(fake_config.ConfigFixture())
+        self.patchobject(config, 'TempestConfigPrivate',
+                         fake_config.FakePrivate)
         self.fixed_network_name = 'fixed-net'
         cfg.CONF.set_default('fixed_network_name', self.fixed_network_name,
                              'compute')